HAWTHORNE, Calif. April 28, 2006 - The City of Hawthorne is celebrating Earth Day this year by adding a new clean-fuel refuse hauler to the city's fleet. Mayor Larry Guidi will unveil the new compressed natural gas (CNG) hauler at 11:00 a.m. Saturday at the Hawthorne Community Earth Day Festival. Clean Transportation Funding from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) contributed $20,000 toward the city's purchase of the hauler.
"We applaud Mayor Guidi and the City of Hawthorne's leadership in helping to improve air quality locally and across the region," said Gretchen Hardison, Chair of the Technical Advisory Committee of the MSRC. "The MSRC is very pleased to have been able to help by providing Clean Transportation Funding to support this project." Hardison will be on hand Saturday when the CNG truck is unveiled to present the City with a symbolic check for $20,000.
One CNG refuse hauler can remove 400 pounds of pollution per year. This equals 2.4 tons of emissions eliminated over a typical 12-year life span of a single truck. The emissions reductions from city vehicles such as refuse haulers are especially important from a health perspective because the vehicles operate in neighborhoods on a daily basis.
"We are very grateful to the MSRC and the AQMD for helping the City of Hawthorne make our dreams of a clean environment a reality," said Mayor Guidi. "The urban landscape offers many environmental challenges but the City of Hawthorne is proud of what it has accomplished. We hope to continue expanding our programs and, with help from the MSRC and other environmental partners, the future looks very clean and healthy."
Since the MSRC was created in 1990, more than $200 million in Clean Transportation Funding has been distributed to similar projects in the South Coast Air District, which includes all of Orange County and major portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The Hawthorne project is part of one of the MSRC's most popular programs - the Local Government Match Program. Nearly $25 million in Clean Transportation Funding has been used to match local city and county government investments in mobile source emission reduction programs.
The City of Hawthorne Community Earth Day Festival will be held on Saturday in Memorial Park. This free Festival will be an opportunity for the public to learn about the environment and to see what is being done to keep their community clean and healthy. In addition to the City's new CNG refuse hauler, other alternative fuel vehicles will be on display, as well as a number of exhibits from local businesses, organizations, and community groups. Entertainment and food will also be on hand.